The Alice Hat
by DaAmazingMeepers
Summary: Hatter wants to make Alice a hat, and she lets him.  But it's taking him a long time, and curiosity is driving her crazy!  TarrantxAlice


Hey everyone, I'm back with another AiW '10 oneshot! I seem to be on a roll! So this story focuses on my favorite pairing, which you should know what it is if you properly read the summary. Let me know if it's too cliché or what.

Disclaimer: Alice in Wonderland and its characters don't belong to me. I'm only borrowing them.

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><p>"I should very much like to hat you."<p>

Alice turned to face her mad friend in surprise. "I beg your pardon?"

The Hatter was smiling a gentle smile that showed off the gap in his teeth. "Your head, it looks a bit…unfinished without a hat. Won't you please let me hat you?"

She gave him a curious look. She had been back in Underland for a while now, and he had never before asked to fit her with a hat. She wondered briefly what the occasion was that would cause him to ask this so suddenly. Then she remembered that he was mad, and he didn't necessarily need a reason to do random things. Therefore, she shrugged and said, "Oh why not? It's been quite some time since I've owned a good hat anyways."

The Hatter's face lit up like a Christmas tree at Yuletide, and he gave her a grin that could rival Chessur's before dragging her into his workshop. "Oh it really is wonderful that you're letting me do this, Alice, I cannot even begin to tell you how glorious it will be to make you this hat, for you see I've been wanting to hat you for quite some time now, because I have the most wonderful design in mind for you, and—"

"Hatter," said Alice in amusement, stopping his monologue.

He blinked, shook his head a little, and said in the same cheerful voice, "Anyhow, I shall have to take some measurements first."

He had her sit down in a chair and he used his measuring tape to take measurements of every possible angle of her cranium. She shivered slightly at his gentle touch, but if he noticed he said nothing. When he was finished he shooed her from the workshop saying, "Go on now, can't let you watch me work, mustn't spoil the surprise!"

She tried to turn around to face him as he continued shooing. "Well how long will it take to make?"

He shrugged, reaching for the doors. "Who knows? You can never tell with hats. It could be days, it could be more than a month. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a hat to make."

And with that, he slammed the doors in her face, which she thought was rather rude.

Days went by with the Hatter only emerging for teatime. Each time, Alice would question him about the hat, but also each time he would say, "No no, mustn't spoil the surprise, you naughty thing!"

To try to distract herself, she made visits to all of her friends in Underland, talked to the trees with the Queen, and even tried embroidery, even though she had never been particularly good at it. No matter what she did, her mind always ended up wandering back to the hat. What would it look like? What color would it be? What design did the Hatter have in mind? It was driving her crazy!

She even attempted to enlist Chessur to help her find out about the hat. "Can't you just poof in and poof back out again?" she pleaded.

The cat just grinned and said, "Come now, haven't you heard the phrase, 'curiosity killed the cat'?"

"Well then I suppose it's a good thing I'm not a cat," she muttered.

Chess patted her on the head. "Cheer up, love. He's only taking so long because it's something special."

"I know," she said sulkily, "But that doesn't stop me from wanting to know what it looks like."

Days turned into weeks, and Alice began to grow nervous. What if the hat didn't match up to the expectations that were building? What if after all this waiting the hat just wasn't that great? What would she say to the Hatter? Of course, deep down she knew that the Hatter had good taste and whatever he came up with would be brilliant, but too much waiting gives birth to unnatural fears.

One day, when she thought she could take it no longer, the Hatter came rushing up to her – almost running into her full force – and grabbed her hand saying excitedly, "Alice, Alice, you must come at once! I finished it!"

Immediately, she stood up (or rather, half stood up half was dragged up by the Hatter), apologized to Mirana for abandoning their chess session (Mirana was winning anyway), and ran to catch up with the hatter as they made their way to his workshop. By the time they reached the double doors, Alice was out of breath. The Hatter paused just outside the doors and turned to face the exhausted girl. "Wait a moment," he exclaimed, "There's one thing I need to do first."

He pulled a white handkerchief out of his jacket pocket and carefully blindfolded her with it. She raised an eyebrow under the cloth. "Is this really necessary?" she asked.

"Oh yes indeed," he said, his voice coming from her left, "I did say it was a surprise, didn't I? And the hat is still on my work desk, and I would like to move it to a mannequin before you see it."

"Well why couldn't you just ask me to cover my eyes?"

"Ah, but this way is far more fun!"

Alice wasn't quite sure how to respond to this, so she chose not to. She heard the doors open, then the rustling of fabric, and then she felt him take her hand and heard him say, "Take a step or so forward if you please, Alice my dear…Watch your step here, there's ribbon on the floor…"

Once he had her positioned the way he wanted, he whipped the handkerchief off with a flourish, and Alice couldn't help but let out a gasp.

The base part of the hat was made of felt that was the same color of blue as the dress that Alice had been wearing on her first trip to Underland, and was shaped a bit like a sunhat only smaller. It was trimmed with white silk ribbon and the brim had a delicate swirly design embroidered onto it. Had that been all there was to the hat, it would have been pretty, but just like any ordinary hat that could have been bought in London.

However, sticking out of the ribbon were feathers of vast amounts of colors, some of them as bright as any colors could get, some of them more than one color to a feather, and some of them colors that Alice hadn't even known existed! There were just enough feathers so that it didn't look tacky or over-feathered, and even though the colors were completely random, they somehow managed to compliment each other. In short, it was the most beautiful hat that she had ever seen.

"Well, Alice," said the Hatter softly, "Do you like it?"

She snapped out of her state of awe and replied, "Like it? Hatter, it's gorgeous! It looks like it belongs on the head of a queen instead of mine!"

At this he grinned a huge grin. "Oh no, it was most definitely meant for your head. You see, I designed it to suit your personality, and your personality is quite unique."

Once again, Alice gazed upon the hat in wonder. This beautiful representation was how the Hatter saw her? Coming from him, this was a great compliment! "Well," her friend once again interrupted her train of thought, "Aren't you going to try it on?"

She nodded and gingerly took the hat off of the mannequin's head, as if it would fly apart the moment she touched it. The material felt great in her hands, and as she brought it up to put it on her head, she smelled the familiar and wonderful scent of the Hatter on it. It fit her head perfectly, like a glove to a hand. She turned around and asked the Hatter, "How do I look?"

His response was a sharp intake of breath, and Alice took this to mean that something was wrong and reached up to take the hat off. But before she could, the Hatter gently took her hand, stopping her. "My dear," he said warmly, "You look absolutely splendiferous. But I was wrong about one thing."

She gave him a curious look. "What's that?"

He carefully took the hat off of her head. "You don't need the hat – you look completely you, with or without it."

She smiled, blushing a little at his intense gaze, and took the hat back. "I thank you kindly, sir, but I think I'll wear the hat all the same. After all, you did go into all that trouble to make it." She then gave him a thoughtful look. "Now, how am I to go about paying you?"

The Hatter looked quite surprised. "Oh, I wasn't expecting you to pay me for it, Alice! I couldn't possibly—"

"Oh hush," she interrupted him, "I can't just let you give it to me for free, especially considering how long it took you to make! No, I absolutely must pay you for it in some way."

When he saw how determined she was being, he scratched his head and said, "Well, if you insist on paying me, you can choose the price. I'll be happy with anything you give me."

Now Alice thought carefully. She didn't have any money that she could give him, and there wasn't anything that she could make for him in return. Suddenly, an idea came to her. It wasn't a very ladylike idea, but it was one that she intended to put into action nonetheless. Before he could react, she grabbed the Hatter by the lapels of his jacket and kissed him firmly on the lips. Because her eyes were closed, she couldn't see his look of utter shock, or watch his eyes turn a shade of green so vivid that they almost seem to glow. However, she could feel him respond by deepening the kiss and pulling her closer to him.

When they finally broke away for air, Alice said a little breathlessly, "How's that for payment?"

The Hatter licked his lips and said, "Lass, I think ye paid me too much and now I owe ye."

And with that, he leaned in for another round.

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><p>Afternote; This afternote isn't going to be very long because it's so late, but please tell me what you thought! And I'll try to draw the Alice Hat and put it on deviantArt soon. I love you all!<p>

~DaAmazingMeepers ^w^


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